Nibletz Staff
These days, nothing captures an audience’s attention quite like the magic of moving image. Before the internet really advanced, people were quite happy to sit through a couple of pages of text if that meant that they got the answer they were looking for. But fast forward to 2017 and most of the general public now require almost instant gratification. Advances in technology now mean that we can access pretty much any information we want in an instant – and things only look set to speed up even more. The attention span of the average consumer is not what it used to be. In fact, a pretty eye-opening study from the Microsoft Corp highlighted that now, humans have a lower attention span than a goldfish – around eight seconds, to be precise. This is considered to be a direct result of living in a digital age, where no one really looks beyond the first page of any Google search. Whether you think this is progression or regression is irrelevant – businesses are getting on board with this new phenomenon, many of them profiting from it as a result. Take a look at some of the most successful, modern companies out there. Many of them are choosing to stay away from long passages of text in favor of explaining their message with video instead. This tends to grab people’s attention easily and effectively – plus, nearly everyone has a smartphone, so video can be consumed pretty much all over the world. If you are the owner of a startup, getting your teeth into some video is one of the best ways to ensure you achieve early interest and therefore success. Take a look at these ways you can use video as a must-have tool in your business.
Business introduction/call to action
If you have started your business from scratch, nurtured it and watched it grow over the years, you’re probably going to feel pretty passionate about it. If you sit down to write a short history of your company, you might find yourself getting carried away with all the trials and tribulations you faced to get where you are today. 1000 words later, and you have the ‘About’ page for your website…right? Wrong! It might make a great story, but your customer doesn’t need to know your backstory in any great detail. Sure, it makes sense to give a bit of context. Plus, many people are keen to support local, grassroots types of businesses rather than major international corporations. But you don’t want to overload a prospective client with irrelevant information – they just need to know who you are, what you do and why you are right for them. Using the medium of video to do this with can be a great way to grab your customer’s attention in just a few easy minutes. Unless you are in a very formal line of business, be wary of making it look too corporate and serious. This can be intimidating for a lot of people and may even put them off contacting you. Show you normal working environment, as well as evidence of your business working positively with a client. Most importantly, don’t forget to show off the outcome and include a call to action. If you have an in-house marketing team, creating a video like this may well be within their realm of expertise. If not, you may need to hire a professional videographer to help you bring your vision to life.
Live video
You may have noticed the recent trend for live video that has been taking social media by storm. Going live can be done for a number of reasons by a number of different people. Maybe it is used to live stream a concert, or perhaps someone is going live to document something that is happening to them at the time. But in business terms, it can also be a useful tool. The beauty of social media is that it has given businesses the opportunity to interact with their audiences in real time. This, in turn, makes your customers feel more connected to what you are doing and aspects like the comments system also give them a chance to interact in a more direct form. It is also a great way to subtly market your brand. Obviously, try not to promote your brand too much when you go live. Anyone who is watching clearly already has some kind of interest in what you do, so you don’t need to overwhelm them with your message. Doing so can feel a little pushy and is likely to make people switch off. Instead, use live video to document anything interesting happening – whether this is a staff activity day (seeing behind the scenes can make a business seem much more accessible) or a conference you are attending. However, you need to make sure that the quality of video you are streaming is of an acceptable level. We all know that live video can go wrong sometimes – just look at the amount of news bloopers you see, even on some of the most major channels. But even live streaming for your business needs to have some modicum of professionalism about them, otherwise viewers won’t give you the time of day. Making use of a professional service like a live streaming sdk can help to ensure that your live video always looks good, thus keeping your clients interested.
Staff training
When you first started your business, it may have been a one man or one woman show. A lot of startups start in their future CEO’s bedroom – minimal overheads, of course – and you have to be responsible for every business aspect. That means doing all your own marketing, logistics, book keeping, and management. But as your business grows, there comes a time where this simply isn’t sustainable anymore. Taking on staff can be daunting, of course. Letting anyone else have a say in the business you have worked so hard to get off the ground isn’t a walk in the park for even the most relaxed of CEOs. But once you have started to build a small and loyal team, you will probably wonder how on earth you managed without them. The first step is finding the right kind of people for your business. Personality is just as important as career-skills; you need to find people who share your vision and who will bring vigor and life to your company. A recruitment video, rather than just a job advert, is a great way to capture people’s imaginations and stir some interest in great potential applicants. Once you have done all your interviews and you have a team that you feel confident with, you will need to embark on the training process. Usually, this would involve some kind of welcome pack and a manual. It’s still fine to hand these out – after all, your employees are unlikely to remember everything you tell them in one go. But a more engaging way to train them is by creating and showing them videos. Even if you have the utmost of faith in your employees, you can guarantee that some of them are going to zone out in a training meeting, or maybe not take it all that seriously. By providing a selection of training videos covering all bases, you can rest assured that they will be more likely to actually take in the things you need them to. Video as a whole is one of the best components a modern business can have. So if you’re not doing it already, make it your priority now
